Expert
The Crusaders continued to make a strong start to their title defense with a comfortable win over the Stormers on Saturday afternoon.
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Final score
Crusaders 45
Stormers 28
The Crusaders go head to head with the Stormers on Saturday evening in Christchurch as the South African side continue their overseas tour. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 5:35pm AEDT.
The tourists are certainly going to have their work cut out for them this round against the current champions. Their performance against the Tahs last week definitely impressed but not enough to suggest that they should really threaten the home side this weekend as long as the locals live up to their potential.
The Stormers do have a strong pack and will be hoping to assert some dominance in the set piece over the Crusaders. But it’s in the backs where they are going to really struggle. Dillyn Leyds will start at No.10 replacing the injured Damian Willemse. Leyds hasn’t played at 10 for the Stormers since May 2017 and while he’s a good instinctive player, he’s going to be under a lot of pressure against the Crusaders at home.
The Stormers – who have made finals five times since 2011 – are one of those good but not great Super Rugby sides. If they want to start turning that around then picking up wins against the top sides overseas is going to be crucial. They arguably should have won last week in Sydney so a strong performance in Christchurch would help make this tour a success in some ways.
The Crusaders picked up a good win against the Chiefs last week but many feel they were lucky and helped by a yellow card late in the game that gave them a penalty try and a man advantage. However it’s worth noting that they themselves had two players sin-binned during the game and were able to stay in touch with the Chiefs despite being down to 14 men.
Their pack is strengthened this week as Barrett joins Whitelock in the second row. If the pack need any more motivation then the announcement earlier this week that prop Wyatt Crockett will retire at the end of this season should be more than enough.
Prediction
Expect to see a passionate performance from the Stormers that ends in another defeat. The Crusaders will be too strong across the park and with the home advantage should pick up their second win of the season.
Crusaders to win by 12 points.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 5:35pm AEDT on Saturday.